In April 2014 - with mere days to go until his supernatural thriller series In The Flesh returns to UK screens for a second run - 34-year-old Dominic Mitchell is a renowned and respected scribe who has won both critical acclaim and awards, including a recent BAFTA.

Rewind to early 2013 and Mitchell's life was very different - a rookie writer about to debut his first ever television series, he was less concerned with scooping up trophies and more with escaping the wrath of Being Human fans.

In The Flesh aired its first episode on March 17 - taking over the Sundays at 10pm slot previously occupied by said beloved cult drama, which had departed BBC Three the previous week.

"We were coming out of nowhere…" Mitchell recalls, "…and we were coming directly after Being Human so that was always a worry - that their fans might blame us somehow! But it was only three episodes, so if everyone hated it, it'd be over quick!"

He needn't have worried - an offbeat zombie series pitched somewhere between George Romero and Mike Leigh, In The Flesh was swiftly hailed as not only a fitting replacement for Being Human but also as a wonderfully different drama in its own right.

With its first run complete after just three brutally brief weeks, a legion of fans were quickly baying for more and, while it may now be an established hit, Mitchell says that the challenge in producing a second series of In The Flesh lies in living up to the weight of expectation.

"That's the flip-side of the coin," he admits. "People are now real fans of the show and you've got to live up to that. Keeping that tone and remembering what the show is - what is and what isn't an In The Flesh moment - that's been the biggest challenge."

This time round, Mitchell wasn't forced to start with a blank page - when In The Flesh was at pilot stage, he was asked to write a document outlining the series arc. BBC Three bosses expected a guide running to around ten pages, but Mitchell "got carried away" and delivered a 'series bible' that ran closer to 100.

"It's a great resource," he says. "We're not tied down to the bible, but it's a good reference point - and when we got recommissioned, it was great to go back to."

When it returns, In The Flesh will pick up nine months after the tragic events of the first series finale with Kieren Walker (BAFTA Leading Actor nominee Luke Newberry) desperate to escape his home town of Roarton.

But it's not long before Roarton's "fragile peace" is disturbed, with Kieren caught up in a feud between the Undead Liberation Army and extreme political party Victus.

Many of the ideas and characters central to this new six-part run have lurked within the pages of Mitchell's bible from day one.

"Simon (Emmett Scanlan) is a disciple of the Undead Prophet," he reveals. "He was in the series bible from the off but in series one we had three hours, so we wanted to concentrate on Kieren and his past.

"Back then, we just couldn't get to that character - and there's other characters in that bible that we couldn't get to in series two."

Might these mystery figures crop up in a potential third series? Since our interview with Mitchell in February, it has been announced that BBC Three will likely close in 2015, potentially throwing the fate of In The Flesh into doubt.